POWERFUL Vocabulary for Fluency | 14 Ways to Say "Look" in English

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to  advanced English lessons with Harry, where I  

try to help you to get a better understanding  of the English language. If you're preparing  

for that proficiency exam, or you just want to  improve your business English, or indeed your  

conversational English, well, you've come to  the right place. certainly happy to help you.  

If you've got any questions, any problems, give me  a shout, I'll give you the, the address later on.

Okay, as I said, this is an advanced English  lesson. And we're looking at powerful ways to  

your use the word look, okay, so powerful, really  stronger ways to use the word look. And we've got  

14, in this particular case, 14 ways of looking  at something or 14 ways of looking at somebody,  

so I'll explain them where best I can. And  we will go through them one by one. So most  

of these have a physical reaction that  goes with them, there's some mood that  

you're in or some way of doing something.  And this way of looking is appropriate with  

that particular action. So I'll try to make  sure that comes across in the explanations.

And before we get started on this advanced  lesson, I would just like to ask you,  

if you do like the lesson, please like the video.  And also if you could subscribe to the channel,  

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So well, observe it's quite formal to  observe something is to watch on... at  

something without really getting involved. You  usually observe from a distance you watch and  

you note and you take care. So if there's  some military manoeuvres taking place,  

then the the government ministers or the  generals will observe from a distance to  

see what is happening, and how expert the  people are. Or you can say I observed this  

and that so it's quite a formal way to say I  was looking at, I was watching. To observe.  

But usually it means doing it from a distance  without actively getting involved, to observe.

To stare. Yes, when you stare you have  your eyes open, and you're looking hard  

at something sometimes you don't believe  what you're seeing. So you stare My God,  

I don't believe it yet to stare, or sometimes  it can be mistaken for being rude when you see  

somebody perhaps beautiful or not so  beautiful or whatever. And you stare  

at them because it's an unusual sight and the  somebody said, Don't stare, it's rude. Yeah,  

so of course it is to stare at people. We  shouldn't stare but we often do because  

we don't believe what we see. To stare to  stare in disbelief as a good expression.

Gawk it's a very informal way to go is  another way to stare but it's a very,  

very informal slang word, the pronunciation  you've got the stress on the final que gawk?  

What you gawking at? Very, very old Irish  expression meaning what are you looking at?  

So if you're standing staring at  somebody and they don't like it,  

they might say What are you gawking? At?  Yeah, what are you looking at? So you have  

to apologise because otherwise there may be  a fight or a route. So to gawk means to stare  

in a very informal and it's a slang word  to gawk and practice that pronunciation.

To gaze. Well, we often gaze into somebody's  eyes. It's the expression we use when new love  

young love. Yes, somebody falls in love for the  first time for the second time, and they gaze  

into the eyes of their partner. Hmm, gaze, gaze,  gaze, gaze. Or if you're on a wonderful holiday  

and you're gazing out over the ocean you're  standing on one of these golden sandy beaches  

and looking out at nothing in particular on the  ocean or there might be a few yachts or boats  

or people swimming you sit there or stand there  gazing into the distance Hmm, yes, gazing okay.

To leer. Leer as  

well. It's a rude way to look at somebody a  member of the opposite sex male or female Yes,  

when you leer at somebody you might be physically  attracted to them but it's not a pleasant way to  

look. Yeah. So now it'd be would be very  non-PC not politically correct to leer at  

anybody in that way. And you know, people would  say oh, it's disgusting. Have you seen the way  

he leers up the girls in the office? Or have  you ever been in the elevator with him. Oh,  

I don't know he makes me creepy, makes  my skin creepy. Leer. So somebody who  

looks at somebody in a probably sexual  way and but it's not pleasant and it's  

certainly something that is not politically  correct in the modern world. So to leer.

Squint. Well, people who wear glasses like  me, if you take off the glasses and you can't  

read something you squint, you're trying to  read something, the print on your screen,  

perhaps on your laptop. You start squinting at  it because you forgot to put on your glasses,  

and you can't read it. Or if you see the bus  coming in the distance and you know glasses,  

you can't make up the number of the  bus. So you're squinting to see,  

is this your bus or your train.Yep. Okay,  so to squint, so you close your eyes,  

and you try to focus on what's ahead of you so  you can read it clearly and properly to squint.

Peek. Well, we used to have a game with the kids  where we did Peekaboo. Peek. Peekaboo. Peek. Well,  

peek is when you look very quickly, you hide  your eyes or close your eyes, then you open  

them. Peek. So to peek at something means to  take a quick look, you can use it for example,  

if you come home, and you're trying to find out  the presence that somebody's bought for Christmas,  

and you're very, very inquisitive. So you start  peeking in a few cupboards to see if you can find  

what has been bought. Yeah, so you're trying to  just take a quick peek to see what it might be.  

Okay, so you look in the cupboard of places where  your partner might normally hide the presence,  

because that's what you usually do try to find  them and have a quick peek. Meaning a quick look.

Peep. Peep is to... peep at something  quickly to... but without being seen,  

you know. So we often have the situation when  neighbours like to know what's happening,  

particularly older neighbours, so they peep  out of the window or the peep from the behind  

the curtains hoping that nobody will see  them. But if you're very, very quick,  

you'll see the curtains moving. And you can see  them trying to see what you're doing what you're  

putting into the car what you're taking out of  the car. Yeah, so they have a quick peep. Yeah,  

but it's usually done in secret so that  nobody sees them. Yeah. Okay, so, peep.  

So it's a secretive way to look at something  to peep. So if you're looking out for the kids,  

and you don't want them to see that you're  watching them. You don't want... You're  

hoping they won't get hurt. So you peep around  the corner quickly to make sure they're safe  

and sound. So they walk into school for the  first time on their own. So you follow them  

a little bit of the way and you peep around the  corner to make sure everything is okay to peep.

Peer. To peer into the distance. It's a bit like  a gazing. To peer into the distance to see what  

you can see, yeah. To peer over the wall to see  what's there. To peer into somebody's garden. Or  

if you're walking along the street and they have  the curtains open and you can see quite clearly  

into room, your peer into the rooms. That looks  nice. Wow, look at the size of the TV they have  

to peer to look into something a little bit  but with a bit of a distance, yeah. To peer.

Gape. Now we often gape with our with our mouths  open. My mother used to say to me, 'Don't stand  

there gaping with your mouth open' when you're  surprised or shocked. So perhaps when you come  

down on that Christmas morning, or perhaps for  your birthday, you come down and you see all the  

presents on the table or under the tree and your  mouth opens. Wow.... So what are you gaping? Oh,  

have you seen all the presents under the  tree? It's wonderful. So it's usually done  

with a certain amount of surprise. To gape but  usually with your mouth and your eyes wide open.  

To gape. To gape in amasement.

The next one is glare. Now we usually glare  at somebody when we're annoyed. So somebody  

says something and we hmm. And we sit there  and we stare at them. But we've got a very,  

very stern face. And we glare at them to let  them know without saying anything that we're  

really really annoyed. So you know  if you've done something at home,  

and your mother or father turned around  and they just you know one of those looks  

the glare at you, and you know they're not happy.  Okay, so they don't have to say anything but the  

look and the look on their faces enough to tell  you that they're not. They're not pleased. They're  

not happy. So to glare. To glare. We're  usually with annoyance or in annoyance.

Okay, glance, a glance is up a quick look.  Did you see the accident outside? Nah,  

I just had a quick glance, It  doesn't seem to be anything serious.

So a glance, a quick glance, a quick look at  something. Can you glance over those notes I sent  

you before the meeting? Yeah, I'll take a quick  glance meaning I'll take a quick look. I won't  

study them in detail, but I'll take a quick look  at quick glance, glance over it when you have some  

time now just see that anything that jumps out at  you that might not be correct to glance at them.

Glimpse, to glimpses to see something quickly,  but without getting too much detail. I just had a  

quick glimpse. Everything seemed to be fine to me.  Yeah. Did you think everything was in order? Yeah,  

I had a quick glimpse, meaning a quick look. But  it all seemed fine. I don't think there'll be any  

problems. So, or if the policeman asks you, did  you see this guy coming into the bank? Or did you  

see this guy coming into the office, I just took  this got a quick glimpse of him as I was walking  

past. But to be honest, I didn't really pay  any attention. I didn't see anything unusual.  

Why? What happened? So they're looking for  information about somebody who came into the bank,  

or came into the office and has taken something  but they're looking for witnesses and you look at  

many other people saw him but you didn't notice  anything different. So I had a quick glimpse,  

but nothing would out of the ordinary. So  glimpse meaning a quick short look at something.

And then finally, ogle. To ogle something  is to look at something with desire. Now.  

You walk into that cake shop and you see  the array of beautiful beautiful cakes in  

front of you. Chocolate cakes,  raspberry cakes, sponge cakes,  

all sorts of... cinnamon cakes... whatever they  are. They're all there. Chocolate eclairs lined  

up one after the other. And you stand there with  your mouth almost watering. Ooh... and you ogle.  

Ogle means to look at them with desire that you  really, really really want to get your hands and  

more importantly your teeth into one or two  of those because they just look absolutely  

delicious. Well, don't just ogle those. Why don't  you buy one? Yeah. So what are you ogling at?  

So why don't you buy one cake try it and that  will at least satisfy your appetite. To ogle.

Okay, so there are the 14 ways good ways,  unusual ways, powerful ways in which you can  

have alternative ways of looking at something so  we can be observing gawking, gazing, glimpsing,  

glaring at. And often, as I said, they do come  together with some sort of mood or some sort of  

action. You know, to glare when you're annoyed.  To squint when you can't see something. Okay?

So the best thing to do is to take them, try them,  see, can you put them into your speech, see, can  

you use them and again. If you have any problems,  you don't understand them? Come back to me one  

or two of them have similar meanings. You're  peeking and peeping, but you know, just find  

out the situation when you can use them, practice  them and you'll get a better understanding. Okay,  

so as always, I really appreciate it when you  you listen, if you want to contact me you can  

www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Very happy to  hear from you. And as always, I look forward  

to meeting you at the next lesson. This is Harry  saying goodbye. And thanks for joining me today.